Zenith Electronics introduces its first digital high definition television receivers in the US. Model IQADTV1W has a list price of $5,995.

January 19

Titanic becomes the first film to take more than $20m on each of the first
five weekends on release in the US.

January

Danish media group Egmont and US studio Columbia-TriStar create Egmont-Columbia-TriStar Distribution for theatrical distribution in Norway and Finland.

February 12

Handwritten copy of Bernie Taupin's lyrics for the version of
Candle in the Wind revised for the funeral service of Princess Diana sells at auction in Beverly Hills for $442,500, which goes to her charities.

Sweden's Radio and Television authority receives 60 bids to operate digital terrestrial TV channels. Initially only eight channels are planned; four are set aside for SVT and TV4. Key bidders include Canal Plus and MTG. Launch of services is planned for January 1999.

March 10

First Love, debut album by Hikaru Utada, is released and becomes the biggest-selling Japanese record ever, selling 4.5m copies in the first month and 7m by May.

March 12

US Federal Communications Commission adopts an order to make mandatory the currently voluntary scheme to incorporate filters (V-chip technology) into television receivers to provide parents with ratings of programme suitability for children and to allow blocking of unsuitable programmes.

March

Fox switches its theatrical distribution contract in Finland from Finnkino to newly-formed Egmont-Columbia-TriStar Distribution (ECTD). Warner decides to close its Norwegian distribution operation for financial reasons.

Games of the FIFA World Cup football tournament finals, held in France, are televised in 196 counties and attract a cumulative total of 24,770.45m viewers. Total transmission time is 29,145 hours. [0065]

A Working Party chaired by Sir Anthony Kenny presents its report on legal deposit of non-print publications (audio-visual and electronic items) to the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. It recommends that statutory deposit of all films, television programmes and sound recordings is essential if material is not to be lost, citing the British Film Institute's estimate that 80 per cent of all silent films and up to 50 per cent of all sound films no longer exist.

Internet traffic measurement company Media Metrix merges with its largest rival, Relevant Knowledge.

November 15

Launch of UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service ONdigital with a £90m advertising and promotion budget. Subsidised set-top boxes cost £200. Package of 11 channels costs £9.99 a month, or any six channels for £6.99.

November 27

Sega launches its Dreamcast games console in Japan.

December 25

US sales of DVD Video players total 100,000 in the past two weeks, bringing the total sold to date to more than a million.

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Les Editions de l'Etoile, publisher of French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, is taken over by Groupe Le Monde.